The Secret Curse
by rhinweddol
Summary: The dreaded summer trip is over and the curse has been lifted for the year. That is, until four more transfer students arrive. These transfer students, however, were not from their world...or time. Can the curse be lifted and did the victims really die? Kaori, Gabriel, Aedyn, and Mena are original characters.
1. Chapter 1

"Aedyn!" Kaori rushed over to me holding a two ice cream cones.

The theme park seemed quite empty for a Sunday. _I wonder where everyone is._

"There is a large concentration of people in their homes at this time." Mena responded to my thoughts.

I looked over to Mena. "Can you still read my thoughts?"

"Our connection has been broken, but the telepathy is fading. You were thinking that and looking around at the same time."

_Visual cues. Very good, Mena._ I noticed Mena looking around with concerned look on her face – well, concerned for Mena, which was barely noticeable.

"What's wrong?"

"I'm feeling it too." Gabriel, my other travelling companion, stated.

"What?"

"I have not felt this for some time." Mena said.

_Thanks. Now can you explain?_

"Are we in danger?" Kaori asked.

"I do not sense any danger. However, I must find the epicenter." Mena began walking towards the hill.

"Hey, what about our little vacation?" _I had, after all, left Bree, Aoi, and other members of the S&T Club behind. I was promised a quiet place for Mena, Kaori, and myself. I didn't know Gabriel was coming too. _My eyes were on Gabriel.

Gabriel smiled back as he normally did. "Shall we?" He motioned after Mena.

"Let's go!" Kaori grabbed my arm just as the wind blew, landing a good mouthful of her pink hair in my mouth. Not something I enjoy eating.

We arrived at the top of a hill with a Japanese-style school.

Mena pointed to a certain room and then walked on.

"Hey, Mena?" I asked. She turned around. The wind blew her teal hair over her eyes, making it hard to see if she was addressing me or not. "The anomaly has been pinpointed here." She turned back around and we continued to follow.

We entered a classroom. It seemed pretty ordinary except for an old desk with etchings on it. Mena approached the desk. "The epicenter originates here."

I backed away, half expecting shadow creatures to come out and hurt us. Workplace hazard being friends with watchers – multiverse protectors of various factions. They vanquished shadow creatures, prevented universal disintegration, and made good lasagna. The last compliment falls squarely on Kaori.

"The world within this world has been closed…temporarily."

"Um, can I help you?" A girl about my age with long, light brown hair stepped in the classroom.

I froze. Gabriel, however, in his ever smiling gaze, defused the potential situation. "Hello. We were assigned to this class. We just transferred here."

Her eyes grew wide and she backed out. "No." She muttered. "NOOO! It was supposed to be over this year!" She crouched down and put her hands on her head.

"Not a usual reaction." Mena said, unemotionally as always.

"Indeed." Gabriel turned to the girl and reached out his hand. "What's your name?"

"Hey, back off. She's trembling." I said.

"I noticed. Something is definitely off." Gabriel addressed her again. "We are not your average students. We can help."

The girl looked up at Gabriel, then Mena, me, and Kaori. "Really?"

To prove his point, Gabriel reached out his hand towards the front of the room and revealed the doorway between the worlds. This door was circular and translucent as normal, but the writing and colour differed. Gabriel spun the outer dial – a ring with symbols – and the inner circle glowed a bright white that was nearly blinding.

"What are you?" She gasped.

"We are watchers." Mena said. "Any further explanation would have to be more in detail as we are from three different factions."

She looked over to me. "Yeah, I'm normal, just those three."

"Naomi Fujimaki." She said.

"Nice name, Naomi. The teal haired is Mena, the auburn haired is Aedyn, the pink haired one is Kaori, and yours truly is Gabriel." He made a "ta-dah" pose for himself.

"Um, do you not have last names?" Naomi asked.

"Just me. It's Jensen, but please call me Aedyn." I clarified, recalling Japanese social conventions.

"You can call me Naomi if you want."

The next day, we introduced ourselves as the new transfer students, partly to satisfy Gabriel's curiosity. Nevermind that the textbooks were grossly out of date, in a language I could barely read, and that I was a year younger than everyone else. I took some Japanese last year, but only knew 10 kanjis. The only reason I could communicate effectively was through Mena's translation field. As long as I stayed within a mile of her, I could understand what people were saying. Kinda important as my spoken Japanese was not much better than my written Japanese. I could have a very good conversation with a 5 year old on my own though.

The room had plenty of empty chairs. The ones that were filled though, the people looked at us with a mix of disdain and fear. Two, however, remained calm for the most part. One kinda resembled a dark haired version of Mena with an eyepatch and fuller hair.

"We should probably explain ourselves now." Gabriel said.

After a repeat of the introduction and show-and-tell from yesterday, the class told us the story.

"We need to prevent this from happening again. Can you do that?" Matsuko asked.

"What do we need to do?" Kazue asked.

Many other questions followed, but the one that brought silence to the room was the one from Mei. "Can you bring back those that died from the curse?"

"Leave the dead with the dead!" A couple students shouted.

"That's what caused this mess in the first place." Another shouted.

Mena spoke up. "Those that were affected by the subworld's disturbance are not dead."

The class grew eerily silent. "But, we saw them die."

"Humans are composed of personality, body, and mind. The body has been destroyed, but the personality and mind still exist. This would not normally be possible, but they are trapped in that subworld.

I turned to Mena. "Are you saying Observer has the power over life and death?"

"No, but this energy has altered their state. In essence, they are not dead."

"But if their bodies are destroyed what then?" Naoya asked.

"Dead bodies don't preserve long and some wounds were quite disturbing." Yuuya added.

"This body you see before you is not my original body." Mena said.

The class gasped.

"Is she a ghost?" Someone whispered.

"It's a trap. They'll set off the curse again." Another added.

"I am a clone. My mind and personality are preserved forever, but my body has been destroyed five times."

"Impossible!"

"No way!"

"Way." Mena responded. "If provided pictures, Observer will be able to provide clone bodies that match their appearances."

"Observer?"

"Yeah, sorry. Observer is a sentient quantum supercomputing blah blah entity and stuff." I said with my voice trailing off towards the end showing how little I knew Observer. I really should have just had Mena explain.

She looked at me, then continued. I guess my explanation was enough for her.

Kouichi brought the class picture from the trip; others brought pictures of their friends and families who had been killed.

I seriously needed a break as the day dragged on. Everyone was getting me down, so I whipped out my phone and began playing a recently downloaded CGI game.

Naoya looked over my shoulder. "What kinda handheld is that?"

"Galaxy SX. Its pretty decent for the price."

"Never heard of it."

"Well this model was released earlier this year."

"1998?"

I paused the game and looked over to Gabriel.

He approached sensing the situation. "What seems to be the problem?"

"Is it possible to time travel?"

"Not sure, never done it." Gabriel said.

"Naoya's saying its 1998."

"I see. It is quite possible this universe experienced everything 17 years later."

"Wait…17 years?" Naoya looked at us in shock.

"You could certainly tell us some winning lottery numbers."Yuuya said.

"Even if we did give that information, we are from a different universe. Things don't always occur in every universe. In one universe, the Soviet Union still exists and in another the Golden Gate Bridge in California is blue. Our 'future' would necessarily be on a different track than yours."

Mena walked back to my desk where Kazue, Naoyu, Yuuya, Kouichi, Mei, and Gabriel gathered. "All photographs acquired. Observer has constructed the clone bodies. They are in my subfield."

The watchers hardly used the word 'subfield' but from experience, I knew it to be the invisible field surrounding them from which they materialized their weapons. Kinda like an infinitely large pocket that won't weigh you down.

"We will need a guide." Mena said, looking across the sparse room. "Unlike here, there will be danger."

Everyone looked away. Mei was the first to look at Mena. "I will go."

Kouichi looked over at her.

"My sister was connected with the curse. If I can bring her back, it will be worth the risk."

"I…I want Akazawa back. And my other friends." Naoya volunteered.

"I'll go too." Kouichi grabbed Mei's hand. Mei looked back at him.

Everyone started making requests for friends and family.

"I assure you, we will find everyone that has 'died' due to this curse." Gabriel assured them. He turned towards the epicenter and held out his hand. The doorway with two extra rings within appeared. Gabriel spun the rings with his powers and the doorway unlocked and opened. The centre was not bright white as the other doorway, but a strange reddish colour.

"Shall we?" Gabriel motioned for Naoya, Kouichi, Mei, me, Kaori, and Mena.


	2. Chapter 2

"Thank you all for coming." Gabriel said as soon as they were in the subworld. "We may need more than one guide due to the amount of people we will be bringing back." The world seemed a deep red. The sky was frozen in place but a strange wind continued to blow.

"You didn't need to come too, Naoya." Kouichi said bluntly.

"I know why you came as well. It wasn't just to protect Mei, was it?"

Kouichi looked away.

"You don't want to revive those from the inn, do you?"

"Not everyone at the inn went insane."

"I thought so." Nayao put his hand on Kouichi's shoulder. "I know how you feel, but she was under immense stress. Akazawa even tried to help."

"Yeah. She did lose it in the end though."

"You have every right to hate her, but please, let us bring her back."

"Whatever. I don't plan on staying here for long. If need be, I'll take Mei with me."

"She'll pose no danger."

"How do you know? You didn't see the soulless eyes that I saw. Once Takako died, she lost her humanity."

"Sorry for interrupting, but we should probably head this way." Gabriel motioned towards the staircase.

"You alright?" I noticed Kouichi getting nervous.

"Yeah. Just a little anxious at what I will find."

There at the middle of the staircase a deep red shadowy figure appeared above a translucent Yukari Sakuragi. There appeared to be no damage to her, except of course, said shadowy figure hovering over her, seemingly sucking her life force.

"Red energy shadow. Get down." Mena warned. She jumped into action and materialized teal "laser lights" at the shadow. It soared towards Mena. She said something unintelligible and a teal containment field encompassed the shadow. She said something else and the containment field collapsed in an explosion.

"Good job, Mena." Gabrel said.

"I was in no danger. That was a low level red shadow."

"Sorry, but what is a red shadow? I thought they only came in one colour – shadow." I asked.

"When consumption of life force is great, shadows begin to take on a reddish colour. This of course is only an illusion. Such colours cannot be viewed by normal humans, but the visual translation is red.

"Then is she…" Kouichi asked.

"She is fine. The shadows are red collectively from all the life force taken."

"If life force is already taken then…" Kouichi asked.

"They are truly dead." Mena continued. "Their souls will be released upon the destruction of this red energy, but they cannot be reconstituted into a body."

"Then we can't save them?"

"Guys, what's going on?" Yukari climbed the steps. "What am I doing here?" She seemed a bit groggy.

"She's alive." Kouichi rushed towards her.

"Hmm. This means that we can bring back people from at least several months ago." Naoya suggested.

"Can we head over to the hospital?" Mei asked.

I'm not sure of the danger here, so we should probably walk." Gabriel said.

"How else would we have…" Naoya was interrupted by yours truly.

"These guys can also teleport." I said.

"Yeah, probably wise since I don't know how many red shadows there are. Even the low level ones are a bit of a hassle." Kaori added.

Yukari suddenly screamed. I turned around and saw Kouichi's and her hand go through each other. Yukari backed away. "What…"

Mena mumbled something. I knew what she did. "Try it now." I called out to those two. They were able to touch each other.

"Huh?" Kouichi turned around.

"I rephased her life force into a solid being. She will still need the body when we return." Mena continued walking.

"What happened? All I remember is running out after hearing about an accident involving my mom." Yukari asked.

Kouichi explained the situation as best as he could to her, including that Mei now "exists" and it's okay to acknowledge her, and also the fate and future revival of all classmates.

On the way to the hospital we were able to revive Ikuo Takabayashi. He seemed just as dazed, but more calm. This was probably due to Mena phasing him in before he "touched anyone. Luckily, Mena was able to take care of that low level red shadow as well.

The group entered the hospital gasping. The air was foul and the wind was nearly a gale. The building, as the classroom, was old decrepit in this subworld.

"We should head to the basement." Mei said and ran off.

"Wait!" Kouichi ran after her.

The rest of the group had no choice but to run after them. I turned the corner and found Mei crushed by a ceiling tile and pipe. The perpetrator was visible – a red shadow.


	3. Chapter 3

The shadow bolted towards me, but Mena erected a forcefield, blocking it. She then shot teal coloured lightning from her hands.

"I got this one." Kaori joined in as she materialized a gymnastic ribbons, whipping them at the shadow. Gabriel joined in on the action, materializing dice and throwing them at the shadow. The dice seemingly exploded in purple shockwaves and the dice returned to him.

The shadow dematerialized. Kouichi raced forward.

"Stand back." Mena said calmly. Before he could respond, the tiles and pipe were lifted off and dematerialized.

He reapproached. From his reaction, I knew the fate of Mei.

"She is fine." Mena said.

Kouichi looked at Mena. "She's dead."

Mei coughed. "Kouichi?"

Her body seemed normal now despite being crushed.

"Her injuries were within my scope of healing."

"Tell me again why you had to be cloned?" I asked sarcastically.

Mena, not reading my sarcasm, answered. "My wounds were much greater in all instances."

"In either case, thank you. You saved her life." Kouichi said. He looked down at Mei whom he had been clutching. "Were you looking for Misaki?"

She nodded.

"The elevator shaft should be right over…" Kouichi said as he turned to look down the hallway.

I looked as well and heard a noise coming from over there.

Kaori took the lead and we walked to the elevator shaft.

"Where is she? She should be here." Kouichi looking around panicked.

"She is." Mei pointed to the collapsed elevator cabin. "In there."

"How…" Before Kouichi could finish Mena reconstructed the elevator cabin and had the doors open. A young woman in a nurse's uniform, Sanae I believe her name was, looked up. She looked pretty good for someone who had just got crushed from an elevator.

"What?" Sanae muttered.

Kouichi hugged her tightly while tears streamed down his face.

Naoya was still in shock.

"You gonna be okay?" I asked.

"You guys really can lift the curse." Naoya said without any signs of doubt.

"Hey, I'll stay back with these guys. You go on with Mei to get her sis." Kaori said.

I decided to stay back as Mei and the others went further down the hall. Mei insisted on Kouichi staying with Sanae. I imagine it gave her hope that though this happened over four months ago, revival was still possible. Kouichi explained the situation to Sanae as me and Kaori hung out waiting to defend against shadows – let me rephrase, while she defended us against shadows. I'm just an ordinary human, no superpowers or special abilities. I could make a mean taco though. Mena and Kaori both liked my tacos, even my sister enjoyed them occasionally. The first Mena I remember liked mild tacos, while the latest liked super spicy with extra tomatoes. Anyway, I digress.

"Hey, Aedyn." Kaori leaned on the cracked paint wall. Her pink hair in short pigtails stood out a bit here. I don't recall anyone having pink hair in this universe. I even went to a world where blue and green hair was strange as well.

"Yeah?"

"I was thinking, we should go on a trip, just the two of us. I mean, you and Mena aren't a couple, right?" She smiled goofily at me.

Blunt and to the point. "Um, sure. I just hope you aren't planning on dragging me away from everyone this time." Not like I could decide between them. I mean, Mena saved my life, was extremely cute – with her thick short teal hair and mesmerizing eyes, but was a bit deficit in emotions – at least in showing them. I had seen her emotions come out when she became corrupted with a virus intended to affect the Observer system, so I know her emotions existed. Kaori was cute too with her slightly longer pink hair, tied in short pigtails and genki personality. And that was just among the watchers.

"Oh, hey. They're returning." She said. "Hey!" She waved the other group over.

"Should we be making so much noise?" Kouichi asked.

"Don't worry, we can take these shadows on." Kaori clenched her fist and smiled.

Mei approached us with her twin, well almost. She had brown hair and didn't wear an eyepatch. They were holding hands.

Mei & Misaki were inseparable as they trudged through town. Misaki finally asked. "What is this curse and these shadows?"

Mena spoke up. "There are many universes in the multiverse. Each universe can have multiple subworlds or dimensions. These are pockets of dark energy. Each universe has dark energy, but in the subworlds they are not bound to regular matter and energy. This is dangerous – dark energy destroys matter. When dark energy manifests itself, it is in the form of creatures of the world, in this case mostly humans. When the shadows consume a certain amount of matter,they glow a strange colour, rendered as red for non-watchers. Some worlds and subworlds are inadvertently opened allowing shadows to roam in the regular world. Some stronger shadows can manipulate matter and cause 'accidents.'"

"So is this normal?"

"It is rare, but not out of the ordinary. We have dealt with this before. Luckily, since these are not normal 'deaths,' they can be restored. Unfortunately, once the red shadows have consumed their essence, they are lost. We judged this consumption takes between 3-10 months, depending on the mental strength of the person and the strength of the shadow." Gabriel said.

That's when I noticed. Sanae's, Misaki's, and Yukari's pupils were reddish. "Yeah, what's with their eyes? Is that because they don't have bodies yet?"

"No, their eyes shall remain the same as they are now. It is due to their exposure to red energy. Do not worry, their normal sight is not affected." Mena said.

"Normal sight?" Mei asked.

"They will be able to see dark and red energy." Mena clarified.

"That which should not be seen?" Mei muttered.

"Yes."


	4. Chapter 4

Many from the year were saved as Gabriel, Kaori, and Mena braved the red shadows. Some could not be revived as they were totally consumed by the red energy, including Kubodera Sensei, likely due to mental anguish from what Kouichi and Naoya told me. "So where to now?"

"The inn." Naoya said.

"Fine. There are some innocents there." Kouichi gritted his teeth.

"Do you really hate Akazawa that much?" Naoya said sadly.

"I told you, she lost it. From what I heard though, she won't be around. Any mental strength she had was lost when she turned." Kouichi said.

"Just how are we getting to the inn anyway?" Mei asked. She pointed to the dead trees and bare dirt.

"Just grab a car." Kouichi said.

"If the trees are dead and the things appear to be broke here, then…"

"Cars won't run." Naoya finished.

Mei nodded.

"And we can't just transport there without attracting the attention of all the shadows in this subworld." Gabriel added.

Mena approached a nearby stripped Honda. She said something and the car's exterior restored to a glassy metallic blue and the engine started. "I have rendered this car useable."

Remind me to have you come over to render my mom's car 'useable' sometime.

We all climbed in as Mena drove.

"Um, shouldn't I drive? I'm the only one really qualified." Sanae spoke up.

"You are still recovering. Also, my consciousness is 3,000 years old."

"She can also anticipate and compensate for any shadows or their matter manipulation." Gabriel added.

Mena drove the car up the mountain pass, dodging falling rocks, which I might add, were more prevalent thanks to that dry dead gusts. Suprisingly, we did not run into any shadows until a little bit above the halfway point. Mena stopped the car.

"What's wrong?" Kouichi asked.

"The accident." Naoya muttered. "Is this where Ayano and her family is?"

"Confirmed." Mena said.

We stepped out of the car and looked over the edge of the road. There were five shadows swarming the bottom of the cliff.

"Um, how are we supposed to get them?" Yukari asked.

"There is no choice. Kaori and I will transport there and back, the drive off before more approach." Gabriel said. "Ready?"

"Ready." Kaori said determined.

"Now!" Gabriel and Kaori were engulfed in different coloured lights and disappeared. They reappeared moments later with three 'bodies.' "Get in the car!" Gabriel commanded.

As soon as we were all in, Mena punched the gas and escaped the red shadows approaching faster and faster.

"Slow down! We're gonna die…again!" Ayano said, slightly recovered.

"Do not worry. I have altered the car's centre of gravity and manoeverability. We will not crash." Mena said calmly.

As much as she could alter everything you'd think she would not need to be cloned. Just alter yourself to be immortal.

The car swerved towards the rockface as a shadow buckled the road where we would have been on.

"Altering elemental data." Mena mumbled something in addition.

The car began to lift off the road and fly. "The inn is 8.43 kilometers away. Estimated arrival time in 2 minutes.

I was suddenly by myself in a dark room lit only by eerie red shadow "flames." I saw someone in the back sitting. I rushed over to him and noticed he was wearing all black and his entire eyes were red. He smiled maliciously at me.

"Ack!" I looked around. The car had stopped in front of a dilapidated building. Apparently I had passed out in the car. I looked over to Mena.

"I have witnessed this as well. The shadows have a leader."

"What does that mean?" Naoya asked.

"The curse is not unintentional." Gabriel said, a bit troubled. "He is probably a shadow lord."


	5. Chapter 5

We decided it would be safer if we all were together, particularly due to the potential concentration of shadows here. Everyone seemed okay to walk. Apparently people without bodies got tired too. Good thing to know next time I get on Jeopardy. We heard mumbling from the forest.

"Hey. Who's there?"

"Reiko!" Kouichi gasped. "What are you doing here?"

"Why?" Reiko asked.

Kouichi seemed to know what she meant.

"I'm sorry, you were the undead one." He paused. "But why are you here?"

"I'm so confused." Reiko muttered.

Mena prepared to lift the logs off of her.

"Stop!" Kouichi shouted.

Mena looked at him.

"She cannot be revived."

"You are incorrect."

"She died two years ago."

"When the 'curse' re-animated her, her life was restored, but tagged. Since her second death the tag has been removed."

"Really?!" Kouichi fell to the ground and cried. "Thank you."

"Consider this payback for all the pain this curse has caused, along with the revival of everyone we can." Gabriel chimed in.

Mena dematerialized the logs and Kouichi hugged her tightly.

"It's strange. I have memories of two deaths." Reiko said.

"So this tag, that is the trigger for all the curse deaths?" Yukari asked.

"Affirmative." Mena said.

"As soon as you two are ready, we should get the others." Gabriel said.

Mei and Misaki helped them both up.

"Let's do this." Kouichi said.

"By the way, why weren't shadows attacking Mikami Sensei?" Naoya asked.

"There is too much of a feast inside." Mei said.

"Misaki." Akazawa smiled evilly.

"Akazawa?" Naoya looked up the stairs at her.

"DIE!" Akazawa bolted down the stairs and attempted to thrust a glass shard into Mei, but Mei dodged. "Just die already!" She kept trying to attack.

"Stop!" Naoya jumped in to help. Akazawa ended up stabbing Naoya.

"Hey. You're alright, right?" Akazawa started to cry, helping him down.

"Go back to your old self, Izumi." Naoya said. "Mei is not the curse…" His voice trailed off.

"No…" Akazawa cried as a red shadow left her body.

Kaori quickly contained and destroyed it.

Mena knelt down to Akazawa. "He can be revived. Do not worry."

"Sorry, Misaki." Akazawa muttered.

Mena revived Naoya and explained the situation to the others. "It would appear that the shadows have internalized themselves in the people. We must coax the shadows out of their being before we can rescue them."

"What do you mean?" I asked.

"They are feeding on them from the inside."

"They had snapped after the tape was heard." Kouichi said.

"Please...save her." Akazawa pleaded, grabbing Gabriel's hand.

The group headed upstairs. Red "flames" seemed to engulf one girl. Akazawa seemed to recognize her. "Takako?"

She turned around. "Izumi, thanks for bringing her to me."

"It's not her."

"Isn't it?" Takako kept walking towards us.

Mena stepped forward.

"Out of the WAYYY!" Takako attempted to knock out Mena, but she blocked and knocked Takako on the floor. Mena then grabbed her head and "sucked" out the shadow. The shadow resisted and electrocuted Mena, throwing her against the wall. Takako smiled evilly. "Nice try."

"I will handle her. Get everyone else." Mena said calmly.

I hesitated.

"Go on. I cannot concentrate if I have to protect you."

Blunt as always. Somehow I knew she would be okay though.


End file.
